Hey guess who's the new Director of Design at ArenaNet? This guy. I start in a week and a few days. The story is long and complicated. The tl;dr version is that I went out there on a lark--and then fell head-over-heels in love. Isaiah did an amazing job of setting the table... but it was all the [...]

Hello, For Honor players! It has been a while. The game has been live for three months…and I can’t tell you how proud I am. It started with a dream and an idea—and today it’s not only real, but it is in the hands of an amazing community of players—you. To see you all take to [...]

[Note: This post is all about the Engines of Play. If you are not familiar with Taste/Satisfaction Maps and their uses, the Big 5, Self-Determination Theory, etc, I highly recommend watching this video before reading the article. It will make so much more sense. Like, Oh Em Gee.] A Random Encounter With Relic I’m in San [...]

For some reason, over the past few days, I've returned to one of my oldest standby games: Gemcraft. The experience has me thinking once again about a particular dynamic that exists inside certain (rare) games, one that I find both deeply empowering as a player, and incredibly impressive as a developer. [ INFORMATIONAL ASIDE: GemCraft comes in [...]

Here's the GDC Vault recording (in the free section! yay!) of my 2017 GDC talk in San Francisco. It's called "Forging Honor: Providing a Coherent Vision for a New IP", and is all about how the heart of guiding a large team is closely related to the skill of pitching. It also includes a bunch of [...]

The standard Big 5 includes a facet in the domain of Openness to Experience called "Imagination" (here's a link to IPIP inventory: Imagination). When people take the Big 5 test, the ones who score high on Imagination (here, ‘IM’) mark that they ‘agree’ or ‘strongly agree’ with statements like: Have a vivid imagination Love to daydream Spend [...]

The standard Big 5 includes a facet in the domain of Conscientiousness called “Self-Discipline”. When people take the Big 5 test, the ones who score high on Self-Discipline (‘SD’) mark that they ‘agree’ or ‘strongly agree’ with statements like: Get chores done right away. Am always prepared Carry out my plans Inversely, people who score low on [...]

The standard Big 5 includes a facet called “Self-Efficacy”. When people take the Big 5 test, the ones who score high on Self-Efficacy (’S-E’) mark that they ‘agree’ or ‘strongly agree’ with statements like: Complete tasks successfully Excel in what I do Know how to get things done Inversely, people who score low on S-E tend [...]

This used to be a blog - now it's sort of a repository of blogs, with a few links. We shall see what it becomes in the future! Most people coming here are looking for my 5 Domains talks / slides, or for articles I have written. The rest can be generally located through the navigation [...]

This Is A Custom Widget

This Sliding Bar can be switched on or off in theme options, and can take any widget you throw at it or even fill it with your custom HTML Code. Its perfect for grabbing the attention of your viewers. Choose between 1, 2, 3 or 4 columns, set the background color, widget divider color, activate transparency, a top border or fully disable it on desktop and mobile.

This Is A Custom Widget

This Sliding Bar can be switched on or off in theme options, and can take any widget you throw at it or even fill it with your custom HTML Code. Its perfect for grabbing the attention of your viewers. Choose between 1, 2, 3 or 4 columns, set the background color, widget divider color, activate transparency, a top border or fully disable it on desktop and mobile.